Review of Toastess THP-517 Electric Single-Coil Cooking Range, Stainless Steel

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List Price: $34.99
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I bought this range about 6 months ago,we use it everyday this little thing can get pretty hot,we use it to cook deer meat most of the time,I like the part that you can actually take it apart and clean it easy,and its made out of stainless steal,my only complane is the adjusting nob you have to get use to it,I mean controling the temperature takes a little time to get use too..

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I read the reviews of all of the other single burners and this one had only two reviews at the time I made the decision to purchase. The reviewer who said they used it for 6 months to cook deer meat is the one that convinced me. I just received this today and decided to cook sloppy joes out on my patio. Unfortunately, I only had a pound of frozen ground beef, so I put it in a skillet on top of the Toastess burner (set to the highest setting) and waited to see what would happen. Surprisingly enough, the Toastess began browning the frozen ground beef almost immediately. It was cooking as well as, if not better than, my regular stovetop.

It didn't take long at all for the frozen ground beef to cook enough for me to break it up with my spatula. As I continued to cook it on the highest level and added water to the ground beef, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Toastess was able to maintain it's cooking temperature.

Once the beef finished cooking and I added all of my ingredients, I changed the temperature setting from MAX to #2 (there are 6 settings 1 through 5 plus MAX) to let the beef simmer and the Toastess handled simmering very well too.

I can't rave enough about this product. The stainless steel finish looks great and it cooks as well as it looks. I wish I could give it a rating higher than 5 stars because it amazes me that a product this inexpensive performs so well.

Very happy with my purchase!

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I've had this for four months and it still works great, after using a few times a week. I got it when there were only two reviews, both positive, and all the other burners had enough bad reviews to not recommend them.

It doesn't have as much power as a real electric stove burner, but it's actually pretty close and cooks a whole box of dried pasta, no problem; meaning it brings that much water to a boil in a comparable enough amount of time that it doesn't seem like you're waiting around forever. The thing only weighs about two pounds but it's pretty serious.

Temperature wise the burner is either on or off: it comes on full power for a while then goes off for a while, regulated by either a temp. sensor or a timer. Halfway between "1" and "Off" is about right for simmering, though you can still burn something below "1" if you don't watch it; much higher than "2" and it's constant on up through "5" and "Max". When it does come on, you can hear it make a tick and the green light is lit, so you don't have to guess. The instructions say not to have it on without a pot on it, I would guess to avoid overheating/damaging the coil. The coil is about the size of a small range top burner, but with less surface area/coil loops, as the photo shows. A very large 12 quart pot or a big frying pan is stable sitting on it as well.

The photo looks like the top may be brushed stainless steel, which it does turn out to be. So you don't have to worry about melting the plastic top with a wide pan, as reviewers have said of other burners; also the bottom black part is metal. The enclosure can get fairly warm during use, but certainly not enough to burn yourself.

It looks like you could take out one screw and maybe get the coil out, or at least lift it to clean underneath, but I haven't tried, or there's a nut on the bottom that holds the two enclosure pieces together. It has rubber feet with decent grip, the cord is 43" to the end of the plug and it needs a three prong outlet. On mine, unlike the photo, the two lights are next to each other on the left end, otherwise it looks the same.

It does emit a chemically smell when it's on but that goes away for good after using it a bunch of times, and it's not really bad enough to stink up a whole room anyway, at least not for long, as the smell quickly dissipates. However, I don't know what it is, it smells bad, and I wouldn't inhale more than I had to; it does not smell like an electric heater.

Honest reviews on Toastess THP-517 Electric Single-Coil Cooking Range, Stainless Steel

I bought this range for cooking in hotels that do not have stoves. The range worked well, put out consistent heat and performed all the cooking tasks I needed. It is also lightweight and easy to pack in a bag. I would suggest the range to anyone stuck in hotels that have a need to cook their own food.

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When I first got this, it heated up very quickly. A 1.5 quarts of water in a 2 quart regular old stainless steel pot would be at a rolling boil in less than 2 minutes. The knob turns from 1 to 6, but even at the lowest 1 setting, it will be extremely hot. Food will be spilling out of the pot if you are not careful. Simmer does not exist. This is because the heat pretty much just cycles on and off but the heat retains in the coils very well. The pot of boiling water will stay hot enough to burn you for about 15 minutes, and it's just in a very thin, cheap stainless steel pot, not in some fancy heat retaining clay pots, or 3 layered copper steel pots.

With heavy use at about 3x a day for about 7 months, the thing finally started to die down a little. I could now use 1 at a low simmer and 6 at a boil. In the last month of its useful life, 1 through 6 was meager and barely producing heat. In my denial, I plugged it into different outlets to test the heat, but it was not the power outlet it was the dying cooking range. It had a good run, and because it is still a great buy for the price, I got a 2nd one to replace it.

Why is it greater than a $100 induction stovetop? I use stainless steel, copper, clay pot, cast iron, and sometimes leave it completely bare to quickly toast a slice of bread in less than 1 minute. Try throwing bread onto an induction stovetop when you toasted dies on you. You can't.

Pros:

+fast heat

+very high heat

+knobs and body of cooking range does not get hot, accidentally burning you. good design.

+red light to indicate if plugged in, green light to indicate if heat is on

+will heat up any type of cooking vessel

+doesn't take up much space

Cons:

+very high heat. will dry out your steaks

+lack of good temperature control for the first few months of use.

+difficult to clean because you can't get under the coils

For anyone who cares, the picture shows the power lights separated by Toastess logo in between, but actual product has the lights side by side on the left with the Toastess logo still in the middle.